right vs privilege

I remember one of the emails we got from Patrick, talking about the attitude necessary to have and stick with a plan, and he said something to the effect of: instead of thinking "I have to work out today", think "I get to work out today!"

This evening once again we had a team dinner (big boss in town from London) at a Belgian place famous for their imported beer and steamed mussels. Amusingly enough, I don't drink and today they apologized profusely for not having any mussels.

Anyway the food was prolific: french fries with both ketchup and tartar sauce, huge slabs of pork pate, giant bowls of pasta with slabs of fatty bacon, and a rump roast beef thing breaded and baked. Somewhere in there was a shrimp salad, too, with awesomely sweet tomatoes.

I know because I ate a bunch of tomatoes, a couple of shrimp, and much lettuce.

I also had my PCP dinner before-hand.

And I drank lots of iced tea during the dinner. Which motivated me to make two trips to the restroom in two hours; nice change of scenery, get up and stretch my legs, come back and sit down at another part of the table, get a chance to talk to different people and join various conversations.

After the dinner I taxi'd home and did a killer biceps and triceps workout. And tomorrow I plan on going to the dojo to do a bunch of kumitachi work with my man Elvis. Should be interesting to see how that works!

So anyway I am sitting there at dinner, looking at this bowl of mushrooms literally swimming in a bowl of liquefied butter and oil, and smelling this breaded steak thing and I am thinking "I get to go home and work out!" because I tell ya, the alternative was not looking so great.

Especially since I basically spend all day sitting in a chair staring at a computer screen; the chance to get out and move around is just too good to pass up. I am to the point, deep into week six of PCP, where I would much rather NOT sit comfortably and pass food from plate to mouth. It is hard to motivate to eat slowly, since I really just want to be done with it and get up and MOVE. I mean, I certainly enjoy the smells and tastes and textures of the food, but I'd rather burn some of those lovely calories!

Today being Wednesday we had a grocery delivery so I have spent the past hour chopping and steaming vegetables and stuffing my bento boxes for tomorrow. I have so much awesome food in my fridge every week, and nearly all of it is actual food; i.e. will spoil if not eaten within several days. Really motivating to eat All The Veggies I Want. However there is such a thing as too much, even veggies. Today I think I overdid it; had that unpleasantly stuffed feeling in the afternoon and skipped my afternoon fruit and my post-PCP banana.

So I have switched to the smaller-sized Tupperware containers; I can still get 250 grams of veggies in there and that is PLENTY of food!

Plus I have all these excellent fish-based protein options, too. Kind of hoping I will get more variance in protein during the next few weeks. But the egg-whites are key for building muscle. In the morning right after I woke up and was doing 8 Minute Abs I could totally feel the six-pack. It is in there, desperate to come out and see the world. A bit more fat loss and muscle gain and I am there. THAT is motivating!